Ei-iE

In the absence of a government response to proposals and demands made by trade unions to defend and improve the living and working conditions of public sector workers, an inter-union alliance has called public sector workers, including those in education, to a day of action, rallies, protests, and strikes across the whole country on December 5th, 2024.

The call was announced through a press release made by the inter-union alliance of public sector workers, comprised of the following unions: General Confederation of Labour (CGT), Democratic French Labour Confederation (CFDT), National Union of Autonomous Unions (UNSA), Single Union Federation (FSU), Solidaires, French Managerial Confederation – General Confederation of Managers (CFE-CGC) and Autonomous Federation of Public Service (FA-FP).

SNES-FSU: no more contempt

The National Union of Secondary Teachers, an Education International member organisation, said: “Wages, qualifying periods, sick pay, working conditions… the strike on December 5th must be huge so that it has an impact. No more contempt!”

The union also argues that “the government has impoverished public sector workers through punitive measures. And all of this comes with a hefty dose of contempt, seen in the remarks made by Guillaume Kasbarian, minister of Public Service, whose untruths and bashing of public sector workers are on the rise: No, staff in public education are not playing truant! And, with all due respect to Nicolas Sarkozy, they even have a particularly heavy workload: according to a ministry survey, half of teachers work more than 43 hours a week”.

According to the union, “state schools are at a tipping point, they’re being strangled by a lack of resources, undermined by piles of reforms, with poorly paid staff who are despised and who are struggling to keep a worn out public education service going. The time has come to build a response that is capable of responding to the attacks on our wages, jobs, and social model! One day isn’t enough to win. That is why we need to start with a large-scale mobilisation, from the beginning of December, that will last several days. This will be possible if there is a huge strike on December 5th.”

Furthermore, the union announced that the solidarity fund for strikes to support colleagues in financial difficulty had been reactivated. It also shared a toolkit to join the day of action.

UNSA-Education: defending public sector workers unfairly attacked by the government

Also an Education International affiliate, UNSA-Education, echoed the call made by UNSA Public Service, reminding everyone that the day of mobilisation aims to “defend public sector workers who have been unfairly attacked by the government, their employer”.

It also added that UNSA Public Service is demanding a pay increase that takes into account the hike in inflation seen since 2021 and that it wants negotiations to start on improving careers and wages.

SNUipp-FSU: call to review the draft national budget for 2025

The Single Union of School Teachers and the PEGC-FSU (SNUipp-FSU), another Education International member organisation, has called for a massive strike and wants to build on the mobilisation to demand a new budget.

The SNUipp-FSU stressed the fact that “staff have a number of reasons to be angry”, considering that “the draft 2025 budget has opted for brutal austerity. While schools are already on their knees, this announcement verges on the deliberate sabotage of public education. Last year, 650 job cuts led to 1,700 fewer classes according to the ministry. How many more classes will be cut at the start of term in 2025 with 3,155 job cuts?”

The union also highlighted that “at a time when the number of students is falling and schools are suffering, the government has made the political choice not to increase the number of staff. This is a deliberate choice which will lead to a further worsening of working conditions for staff and learning for students. This is another provocation for schools, which are supposed to be the President’s 'priority'.”

The union also recalled former President Nicolas Sarkozy’s public statement, in order to denounce it. A few weeks ago, when talking about teacher workload, he said “They work 24 hours a week, six months a year. Between the holidays and weekends… I mean, I know they need to plan lessons. Kindergarten, large sector…”.

The SNUipp explained that “the ex-president is knowingly lying: The Department for Assessment, Forecasting and Performance estimates the average working week of teachers to be 43 hours. The poor, not to saying totally lacking, response from the ministry speaks to their support for our sector that is facing teacher-bashing that is both false and unacceptable.”

“In light of all this, teachers have a right to be angry! Choosing budgetary austerity goes against the interests of schools, staff and students, and more generally against all public services”, the union concluded.

Union demands

In their statement, the unions acknowledge that, following a meeting on November 7th, the Minister of Public Service, Simplification and Transformation of Public Activity, Guillaume Kasbarian, decided not to go ahead with cuts to public service jobs for categories C, B and A, which cover 5.7 million public sector workers - the system categorises staff according to their level of qualification. The cuts were part of the “Guerini” bill. The minister also made a commitment to discuss his draft “social agenda” again.

Nonetheless, unions are calling for a first day of mobilisation so the minister abandons:

• Reducing sick pay, and
• The non-payment of the individual purchasing power benefit (Gipa), which is paid if the gross index-related salary is less than the price consumer index over 4 years.

Unions are also inviting public sector workers, both staff and contract workers, to mobilise for:

• Budgetary resources that meet the needs of public services and policies,
• Job creation wherever needed and access to permanent jobs for contract staff,
• An increase to the value of the index point for 2024 and the following years, as well as general wage increases,
• Redesigning the pay scale,
• Equal pay and professional equality between men and women, and
• Shelving the “Guerini” bill guidelines. Guerini believes that “categories often trap public sector workers by creating glass ceilings that are very hard to break”.

The unions have agreed to meet after the day of mobilisation and strikes to decide the following steps to take.

Education International supports the action of its member organisations. In line with its Go Public! Fund Education campaign, Education International asks the French government to fully fund a quality and inclusive public education system and to end budget cuts, austerity, and privatisation in the education sector.